Coin-tray.



'1". I. POTTER.

COIN TRAY. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 12, 1914 1 ,120,Q81 Patented Da e. 8, 1914.

3] mum d101,

pvi infooeo Z ,5 i V /3 7 E STA PAT OFFICE.

'rnomas IRVDIG POTTER, or roR'rLaNn, OREGON.

COIN-TRAY.

flpcomcatlon of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 8, 1914.

Application med a... 1'2; 1914. Serial m. 844,724.

To all whom/it may concern Be it known that I, THOMAS IRvINo Po rran, a citizen of the United States, residing at Portland, in the county of Multnomah and'State of Oregon, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Coin- T rays; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the-same, reference being bad to the accompanying .drawings,. forming partof this specification, and to the figures and letters of-reference marked thereon.

This invention relates to devices for facilitating the storage of coins of varidus denominations and their separation and distribution In aconvenient mannerfor-making change in ordinary commercial transactions The objects of the invention are to providea-device which will have a. relatively ,la r e"oap 'acity--for the storage of coins and wit 1 which the user bya single movement of the 'hand either 'moves coins from the storage portion of the device into the distributing channels or from the distributing 'channelsonto-the distributing-plate in preparing for the delivery .of coins of'any particular denomination or denominations.

A{ further object of the invention is to provide a device in which c0ins may be shoved into place either in the distributing, channels or from the distributing channels into storage channels in a most convenient and effective manner without necessitating 'the handling of individual coins more than once. 7

Referring to the accompanying drawings,-F-igure 1 is a plan view of a coin tray embodying the present improvements. Fig. 2 is a section ina vertical plane substantia'llyon the line 2-2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a. section'in a transverse plane substantially on the line 3-3 of Fig. ,1. Fig. L is a section correspondingto the section of Fig. 3,

tion a series of parallelv coiii storage charinels A, which incross section are substan tially -semi-cylindrical with the artition walls between the-channels exten in up- 50 wardly asuflicientdistance to effective y re: tain coins resting in the channels ed QWISQ transversely of the channels and in su stantiallyw'ertical position. The channels are of varying width to receive coins of various 3.5 denominations, the maximum width of any channelv being but slightly greater than new coins of the denomination to be held therein, whereby the natural tendency of the coin in the channel will be to tip up into more or less vertical position when it is pushed along the channel. in either direction and to retain such, position if'not withdrawn from the; channel. At their forward ends the channels A are narrowed and inclined upwardly '75 at the bottom, as shown, for example, at the points ain Figs. 2 and 5, and at a in Fig. 1, and at these ends the said channels merge into the upper ends of distributing channels B, preferably slightly inclined downwardly 30 toward their discharge ends. Said last named channels are provided withsubstantially fiat floors or coin supporting surfaces on which the coins will rest in position to be 7 moved up or down the channels at will by 35 the fingers of the hand of the user. Continuations of the partitions A between the storage channels form the partition walls B between the distributing channels, but

the walls B are of less'height than'the walls 9o A and may be only slightly higher than the thickness of coins in the channels. They are provided with vertical sides whereby the coins will be retained in the channels and the channels are of the width which corresponds to the width of the storage channels into which they merge.

At their lower ends the distributing channels are adapted to discharge directly onto a distributing plate C which is conveniently ring the latter and so as to prevent the tray channels are preferably slightly rougheiie from'slidin-g about thereon.

In using the device, coins may be stacked one in front of the other in the storage channels in su'tlicient quantities to supply change'to start the days work, and the'user or cashier desiring to make change will, by a single movement of the linger'over such coins in the storage channels, draw some of the coins forwardly, whereby they will tip down into horizontal position in thedistributing channels and be spread therein in orderly sequence.- To facilitate this, the coin supporting surfacesof the distributin or sufliciently roughened to permit one coin to be drawn oil of another, should two or more coins, be piled in the channel. Having distributed the coins in. .the manner described, it is-a simple matter to select the coins necessary for making change either from the distributing channels or from the distributing plate; in front of the channel, and. with'the fingers of one hand draw the said coins off of the distributing plate into the other hand where they will gathered together and passed to the customer in the ordinary way. Coins received by the cashier "may be placed on the distributing plate, and-at opportune momentspushed into the appropriate distributing channels. when so pushed into the channels they will cause the other coins therein-.to be pushed rear \vardly into the storage channel, and as this continues the coins reaching the storage channels will gradually turnup into vertical position andbe pushed back against the coins already inthc channels.

' -By providing storage and distributing channels which merge into each other, a comparatively small tray may be made to have'a very large capacity, and at the same time itdispcnses with the necessity of the cashier having to pick coins out ot the storage trays and then lay them on a 'distrib.

uting plate, as is now the ordinary practice.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. A coin tray embodying a series of parallel substantially semi-cylindrical channels closed against the escape of coins at one end and at theopposi'te end merging into a cor responding series of shallow channels having substantially fiat coin supporting surfaces, the several channels being of a width to accommodate respectively coins'of difierent denominations.

2. A coin tray embodying a series of parallel substantially semi-cylindrical .channels closed at one end to. prevent the escape of coins and at the opposite end merging into the upper ends of a correspond'ng series of inclined, shallow channels having substantially fiat, coin supportingsurfaoes, the several channels being of a width to accommo date respectively coins of different denominations. d

v3. A coin tray embodying a series of parallel, substantially cylindrical channels arranged in a substantially horizontal plane substantially flat coin supporting surfaces with low artition. walls between them whereby coins pushed in one direction or nels with lowwalls between said channels,

and a corresponding series ofstorag'e channels into. which the distributing channels merge with walls between said storage channels of greater height than the walls separating the distributing channels.

5. A coin tray embodying a seriesof.

parallel semi-cylindrical storage channels, a series of inclined distributing channels communicating at their upper ends with the storage channels and a plane distributing.

plate onto which the distributing. channels discharge at their lower. ends.

THOMAS IRVING POTTER.

\Vitnesses:

M. C. GEIL,

E. V. REARDON. 

